big debate tomorrow night out on your long island. >> brian: seth, how do we get this stuff and make a bid? >> it's actually appraised on my web site www sethcaller pain com. >> brian: more on the after the show show. stick around. this will be a critweek in the race for theritweek in white house. governor romney president obama set to face off of second of three debates. polling shows the race is neck-and-neck before voters head to the polls. big welcome back to martha here in "america's newsroom". martha: thank you. bill: had a great weekend? martha: we did. we did. watched every second of that debate. quite interesting all of the aftermath. i'm martha maccallum. we have two no polls show governor romney leading the president by two points. look at gallup. this is likely voters. governor romney holds the

advantage of 49-47. the result is mirrored by the "rasmussen poll". bill: tomorrow night the momentum may shift again. john roberts kicking things off live in new york. welcome back to new york, john. what is the expectation tuesday night? >> reporter: the romney campaign says the governor is in it to win it. though they do not expect he would get the same margin of victory he was perceived to get urge during the first presidential debate. the task is make momentum going and make sure he doesn't do anything to blunt that he will talk about his own policies on the stump and attack points against president obama. first that big tax increase on middle class and small business through obamacare in his tax increase. $716 billion cut from medicare, slowing growth of medicare. his energy policy and benghazi. the romney campaign just

stopped short of calling that a cover-up. here is ed gillespie with our chris wallace yesterday. >> you're not willing to say it was effort at political blame shifting or cover-up. >> we think there are more questions than answer and american people have the right to know the answers accurate answers. >> reporter: ed gillespie says that the white house isscape boating the state department and hillary clinton to avoid responsibility for the evolving story. bill: what about the obama campaign? >> reporter: i think we'll see much more aggressive president obama on tuesday night. a lot of what he was going to do is what we see the campaign do over the past couple weeks, truth squadding, what mitt romney has been saying on the campaign trail and first debate. he will talk first about medicare. that is one of his first attack points. health care including that preexisting condition that mitt romney talked about the other day. as well as the the 20% across the board tax cut that the governor is

proposing. that is a cut in the tax rates. here is what robert gibbs said yesterday about that. >> if mitt romney puts up his hand says i don't have a tax cut, i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut plan the president will walk through for voters in that room that will be undecided exactly what the romney campaign wants to do and why it is bad for this country. >> reporter: the obama campaign setting the table for tomorrow night with a new web ad sees voters talking about what mitt romney said during that first debate and reacting to it rather incredulously. bill: 50/50, in so many polls. there is new poll out that shows another key fact are to. of moving in governor romney's direction. what is that? >> reporter: with what you want to talk about and what elections are all about come november is intensity and the intensity is on the rise for governor romney. first let's take a look at this. "washington post" poll among likely voters. very enthusiastic how voters describe president obama and their vote for him.

look at that. 62% for governor romney. 62% of likely voters are very enthusiastic for governor romney. that is double what john mccain had at this time in 2008. another very important figure for governor romney, 35% of people asked in "the washington post" poll say they have a better opinion of him after the debate versus 9% for president obama. for governor romney, things are looking up. bill: sometimes it changes by the week. sometimes it changes by the day. that's where we are. >> reporter: you know what they say. a day is long time in politics a week is forever. bill: that's a fact. thank you. martha? martha: the white house response to the benghazi attack prompting a heated exchange on sunday between chris wallace and obama senior advisor david axelrod. this after axelrod suggested that the attack only become a big political issue because governor romney was trying to exploit it all for political reasons and then happened. watch. >> wait a minute. this is the first u.s. ambassador that has been

killed since 1979. susan rice came on this show and five other and gave the american people a story that turned out not to be true and you're saying we shouldn't discuss this? that we should wait for the investigation to be completed? >> no, no. >> that's what you just said. >> that is, chris calm down. that is obviously not what i'm saying. i just -- >> you wait a minute. we should follow the lead of chris stevens -- >> i'm happy, i'm happy to discuss it with you. >> talking about what he said day after the attacks. nobody is criticizing him what is he saying now except except the obama campaign. >> well, i'm just telling you that from the beginning of this issue, before any facts were known he was cravenly trying to exploit it. look, that is politics. i understand that chris. i understand the whole deal. we're in the last three weeks of a campaign. of course governor romney will be out there talking about this issue but the president's concern, the president's concern is to get to the bottom of it. to bring terrorists to

justice. martha: well, very interesting exchange on "fox news sunday". after all that, david axelrod did promise that the white house would investigate why the state department rejected diplomats request for more security there. we'll get into more of that a little later. bill: we'll see if this comes up tuesday night. he was pennsylvania's longest serving senator. this morning the country remembers arlen specter. he passed away at his home in fill definitely. complications of non-hodgkins lymphoma. he was 82 years old. he was a lifelong republican. he stunned washington when he switched to the democratic party in 2009. later losing his seat after five terms in a democratic primary. hear is the farewell speech from 2010. >> it has been a great privilege to have had a voice for the last 30 years in the great decisions of our day. bill: what a tribute pouring in now. former pennsylvania governor ed rendell here.

>> by teaching me about discipline. teaching me about staying focused. teaching me the value of preparation. i mean, he was prepared as much as anybody i have ever seen. bill: president obama issuing a state saying quote, arlen specter was always a fighter from his days stamping out corruption as a prosecutor in philadelphia to his three decades of service in the senate. arlen was fiercely independent, never putting party or ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to serve. former president george w. bush issuing this statement. arlen specter loved our country and served it with integrity in the united states senate. laura and i appreciate his contributions to america and are grateful for his many years of public service. martha: economists are warning of a spotty future for the u.s. economy. in a new survey that comes out from the national association of business economists, a very well-known respected group, it forecasts sluggish growth for 2013 saying unemployment

will creep back up to 8.1% by the end of the year is their prediction but is this future a done deal or could it be something that changes like the christmas carol predictions? joined by stuart varney, host of "varney & company" on the fox business network. >> good morninging, martha. martha: what you read this look into the way growth is now and unemployment right now what do you take away from their assessments? >> it is striking of their assessment of america today looks like europe over the past generation. very weak economic growth. high unemployment, above 8%. down super spending, we're not shopping very much or spending very much money. that is a striking parallel between america today and what europe looked like for the projections. this is based on a premise that fiscal cliff will go away. think there should be a another problem premise should be considered that is

election result. there is possible much stronger economic growth next year if we put in place tax reform that is what the forecasts from the economists ignore. they're not counting in the possible results of election victory by republicans and mitt romney. martha: it appears incorporating status quo in terms of policy. one of the things that really caught my eye in this report, stuart, 55% of the economists think we won't reach the fiscal cliff. why? bush tax cuts will not be allowed to expire. even for the wealthiest. and also because they saw no significant cuts in spending. said the cuts that were spending would create this fiscal are never going to happen which does not bode well many would say for the future either. >> these economists simply can not believe politicians of either stripe would actually let america raise taxes and or lower spending at the a time which our economy is very, very week. that would indeed push us

right into a very probable recession. they simply can't believe the political leadership woe allow that to happen. they're not considering the whole idea of reversing tax-and-spending policies to go for economic growth. that, they have not considered what their looking at, is more of the same, more, like europe. well into next year. >> stuart, thank you. always good to see you. i promise. bill: despite those grim economic predictions u.s. retail sales rose sharply in september. commerce department saying sales jumped 1.1% after a 1.2% increase in august. both are largest since october of 2010. the agency saying that folks bought more cars, gasoline and electronics. someone's shopping. >> we're just getting started on this monday morning in "america's newsroom" in the coverage of the aftermath of the because because terror attack.

laura ingraham said if the white house had a different resident all this would be a very different story she rebelieves. >> if this were republican president and this went down this way, you would have reporters camped out of hillary's house, rice's house, and demand president do a full-blown press conference what happened. martha: interesting point. we'll ask new york city mayor giuliani. he will join us in a moment away. bill: 24 miles from home. heading straight down, i think is gravity, right? we will show you the first-ever, super sonic skydive and what a wild ride it was. martha: we'll show you the whole video. a dead-heat in the battleground states. this could not be anymore interesting this race. will ohio once again be the state that decides this election? not so sure. voters in the buckeye state have a lot to say about the candidates. >> there is a lot of uncertainty in the business market. people are sitting on a lot of cash. not wanting to spend cash

with the future of the country. we can't go the same we've been last four years

martha: a massive search is underway in the montana for two missing hikers. there are rescue teams in glacier national park. they're looking for two men from virginia and maryland who are missing since friday after they missed their flight home. park officials say weather is a big challenge. heavy cloud cover in the area and as much as 18 inches of snow on the trails there. wind gusts up to 45 miles an hour. it is like winter in that environment right now. we'll have breaking details when we get them. >> in the meantime there is blistering new criticism over the media's handling of the attack in gaziano at the u.s. consulate. laura ink gram saying if similar attack happened under a republican president it would be a media firestorm. instead she argues that the

obama administration is getting a free pass. >> we have a dead ambassador, two navy seals dead, a officer dead. the president answers this by a flying to fund-raiser. i submit if this was a republican president would have reporters camped out hillary's house, rice's house and president do full-blown press conference. maybe it is incompetence or innocent mistakes. my goodness when you have three violent attacks in benghazi, red cross office, office office and postings on facebook we're coming after you on september 10th? they didn't have any actionable intelligence? this is ridiculous. i think the press is partly culpable here. >> what about that? does she make a fair case. rudy giuliani, former mayor of new york city. good morning to you. >> sure she does. look at this morning's "new york times" front page. nothing about benghazi. it was all over the sunday morning talk shows.

it dominated talk shows. bill: what is interesting when she made the comments she was sitting to correspondent from the "new york times." she talked about, explain it as incompetence, explain it as a series of innocent mistakes, whatever it is just explain it. >> that's abs ought sly right. the contradictions are astounding. the vice president of the united states in that debate where he was laughing, giggling acting kind of like a hyena, did make a very important misrepresentation. he said that the white house wasn't informed they were asking for more security. now that is hard to believe. it is hard to believe the white house didn't know about it. if they didn't know about it, how disengaged are they from the security of our people all over the world, particularly in libya, a country where they have a great interest? bill: david axelrod was on the same program. talked about this matter, it did not arise to the level, where the president, vice president would be told of this. white house, those are the maers handled at the state department. why don't you believe that flies? >> maybe this is because the

president of the united states doesn't get his national security briefings. maybe because we haven't had a president in a year. flying off to nevada, traveling here. traveling there. gets only half of the national security briefings. we have a campaigner-in-chief, not a commander-in-chief. that is didn't rise to the level of president handling or finding out about it. four or five terrorist incidents that should have warned you. and september 11, excuse me, maybe you should be a little alert on september 11 and not getting ready for your trip to las vegas. bill: how is mitt romney handling this? >> i think mitt romney is handling it fiber-optic. at first he criticized for making a statement we shouldn't apologize for the mohammed film which turns out to be a, absolutely right about. this didn't have anything to do with the mohammed film. there wasn't a protest in advance. they tried to sell that for 10 days. he turns out to be right about his criticism.

he is hurt by the fact that media isn't covering this even with basic, even basic fairsness. --. republican haves to make the point and when we do we're accused polite sizings. -- politicizing. i don't know if this was cover-up. i don't know if it was series of mistakes. i'm a former prosecutor. i don't believe in coincidence. i think they're covering up the fact they blew libya just like they blew egypt and like they're in the process of blowing syria. bill: cnn found the dead ambassador's diary in benghazi. they have been covering it. you can make the argument that cbs is doing it as well. but where -- >> where is the "new york times." where is the "washington post"? where are all the major newspapers? where is nbc? my goodness, nbc. god forbid they should have to cover this. this should be on "the new york times" today. it dominated sunday news yesterday. you have to deliberately

taken it off the front page given what happened on sunday. bill: david axelrod made the claim mitt romney is doing his best to exploit this. is there argument to be made there? how was this handled on? >> he should be exploiting it. there is real chance, there is a chance a cover-up here. they're trying to run out the clock. hillary clinton appoints a commission that will investigate. they will not report until next january or february. that is deliberate attempt to run out the clock. susan rice's statements are totally inexplicable. the president's statements are totally inexplicable when he talks about this being created by the mohammed film. the vice president's statement is somebody surd. he is either not telling the truth. either the administration is so disengaged or we need another administration to protect us. bill: rudy giuliani, thank you for your time. >> see you. martha: the captain of the costa concordia in court

after. then he tried to abandon ship. you remember this? >> tell me there are children, women, and what kind of help they will need. tell me the number of each of these categories is that clear? perhaps, schettino, perhaps you saved yourself from the sea. i will make look very bad. i will make you pay for this. martha: wow, what an exchange that was. the latest on what happened in court. bill: there are new developments in pakistan concerning a incredibly brave 14-year-old girl, shot by the taliban speaking out on behalf of girl's education. we'll tell but the international effort to save her life. >> she was attacked and shot by extremists who don't want girls to have an education and don't want girls to speak for themselves. and don't want girls to become leaders one.

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♪ . martha: go ahead and jump right? you might as well jump. what an incredible jump this was over the weekend. death-defying skydive from 20 miles above the earth. >> exterior step of. keep your head down. release the helmet tie-down strap. jumper away. [applause] martha: unbelievable. that is fearless felix

baumgartner, surviving a jump from a report 24 miles above the earth. he became the first person to break the sound barrier with his body. he reached a maximum speed of nearly 834 miles per hour. i wonder what that feels like in your brain when you're going that fast. david lee miller live in our new york city newsroom. we hear there were some pretty tense moments up there, david lee. >> reporter: there certainly were. there really was high anxiety. before baumgartner even reached the altitude for the jump the faceplate in his helmet was fogging over for because of a failed heater. he was ready to make a blind leap. that was not necessary. there were more troubles, seconds after he fell his body began to spin out of crow, consequences could have been deadly. once the atmosphere thickened he was able to stablize himself, ultimately landing on his feet after nearly 24 mile descent.

later he said this experience led him to reflect on his own mortality. >> when i was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble you do not think about breaking records anymore. you do not think about gaining scientific data. the only thing you want, you want to come back alive. >> reporter: as he was spinning out of control, he also said, he was not afraid of losing his life. what he was worried about, not being able to break the record for breaking through the speed barrier which he successfully did at 833 miles per hour. martha: unbelievable. when you see him flipping and flipping in that video, that is definitely the most frightening part of it. hard to imagine what it was like for him. he also broke some other records as well, right, david lee? >> reporter: one of the other records he broke this was the highest manned balloon flight. also other records that had nothing directly to do with his jump. there was a record number of viewers on the web watching this as a live event. youtube said there were 8

million, 8 million simultaneous just streams. talk about new media. twitter, more than half the worldwide trending topics had something to do with that jump. you have to say that was significant and this was a sunday and there were seven nfl games. one record not broken, this was the free-fall, he fell for 4 minutes 20 seconds. the record still stand at 4 minutes, 36 seconds. no doubt if there are other daredevils this will attract him. as for baumgartner said he will retire for the foreseeable future and spend time with his family and girlfriend. martha: wow, wow, wow! unbelievable, david lie. just to put the incredible achievement in context, here are comparisons to his record-setting jump. when he stepped out into space he was 4 1/2 times the height of mount everest. that is 29,000 feet. think about how you see

people after what they have gone through. his altitude was three times the height where commercial jets fly. after your plane levels off, he was three times higher than that. 120,000 feet above the earth when he stepped out of the capsule. the jump took just over nine minutes. he was in free fall for more than four minutes. reached a maximum speed of 834 miles per hour. bill: holy cow. martha: we talked about that. he was on our set a couple months ago showing the suit he was going to do this in. i have to say, is this ever really going to happen? bill: right on. martha: to have him when he landed be so buoyant. they have had to wondered when kind of shape he was in when he hit the ground. he answered the question and sort of jogging to taking off the helmet and waving to everybody. bill: his experience helped him correct the problem. what is stunning the guy jumped from 20 miles high and landed in a ground with a parachute a few feet up.

what did he say? he didn't want his mom and sister to see him die on tv? if you have eight million people, you should charged a mission. there is money to be made. i look for the documentary. tomorrow night the big debate goes down number two of three. after a lackluster performance earlier this month, president obama ready to pounce. how will governor romney respond if that happens. fair and balanced debate. don't miss this next. >> there is not possible enough deductions and loopholes only affect high income individuals, to avoid raising the deficit or burdening the middle class. >> look i have five boys. i'm used to people saying something not always true and keep on repeating and ultimately hoping i will believe it. , get on e-trade. set up a real plan. frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works... at e-trade.

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call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. bill: major developments now on the story we've been watching out of pakistan. according to state television there the government sending a 14-year-old girl, shot by the taliban, to the u.k. for medical treatment today. doctors say she will need prolonged care to fully recover. taliban gunmen apparently shot the young girl for promoting girls education rights. martha: all right. back to politics here at home. expect the president to come out swinging in tomorrow night's debate. the obama campaign promising to play offense this time around, but the romney camp says they are not worried. here is what each side said over the weekend. >> i think he will be aggressive in making the case for his view of where

we should go as a country. we expect governor romney will have a great debate too. that is a great salesman. that's what he did as a professional. he is very, very good at it. >> the president can change his style. he can change his tactics. he can't change his record and he can't change his policies and that is what this election is out. $4300 drop in household incomes has occurred under his watch. martha: two pros, david axelrod, ed gillespie, talking about the guy in their corner tomorrow night. here are couple more pros. kirsten power, columnist for "the daily beast" and fox news contributor. monica crowley, fox news radio host and fox news contributor. good morn. i'm looking forward to our discussion and the big debate tomorrow night, so, monica, let me start with you. it all depends on which president obama shows up tomorrow night. what do you mean? >> well there are a couple of different manifestations of obama as we've seen over the past couple years. over the weekend, my saturday night was spent

watching c-span and i was watching some of the old debates from 2008 and during those debates barack obama was aggressive with john mccain but he was polite. i think because he largely knew he had that election in the bag. so he was a lot more secure going into those debates. what we saw in the first debate this time around was a barack obama that nobody had ever seen before. he essentially slept-walk through that debate. so now the pressure is really on him to change his style because he essentially doesn't have a record to run on. we've got an obama economy in freefall and a foreign policy in collapse. so essentially has nothing except to make style points and the very fine line for him that he has got to walk is, he has got to be tough and aggressive in trying to make his case without crossing the line into being a jerk. which is what we saw from joe biden last week. martha: yeah. i hear what you're saying. when i look back over what has worked for the obama campaign, kirsten, in the past, it has been sort of, portraying mitt romney as an

out of touch rich guy. and when they did that, when they had this huge flood of these bain ads and then later the 47%, we saw president obama, you know, enjoying a little better position in the polls than he does now. how can he do that effectively in a way that doesn't sort of belittle his office? >> well, i think that, i don't think it is an issue of belittling his office because i think he can make some of complaints they're making in the ads but the issue is that if the same romney that was in the last debate shows up, he already prepared for those questions. you know, the idea that, the big complaint was, why didn't president obama bring up the 47% video. but reality is romney is ready for that. it was very clear in the last debate he was just sort of knocking these all out of the ballpark when they came at him. it is almost dangerous in a way because he is so prepared and so ready did for it. i think they have to think of a way to come at him they haven't done already.

and i find how much they are, transmitting what they say they're going to do. and i don't know if they're doing it and planning on doing something different or if they're just doing this with you i find unwise. you don't tell the person you're about to debate all the things you're going to do so they can prepare for it. so i'll be interested to see if they actually do what they say they're planning on doing. martha: you heard david axelrod say, he is a salesman. that's what he does, he sells. i think that is a little bit of an indication where he will go. i can imagine the president, monica, you've got your business experience and everything but i've been president of the united states and things are turning around. the employment number is coming down, housing is improving a little bit. what i need for the american people to trust that we're getting there and we're on the right path, mon kaflt i think he has to go there, doesn't he? >> he really does, martha, i think you're right. i'm not sure that is washing with the american people. the american people given barack obama four years.

they have given him more than enough time to turn around. in obama's own words said if i don't do this in 3 1/2, four years this will be a one-term proposition. the argument, well i just need a little bit more time, we're on the right path, i don't think most of the american people are buying that. they have seen other presidents turn really grave economic situations around in the space of four years. this president has not only done that, martha, but taken a bad situation and made it worse. martha: we'll definitely get to foreign policy we will hear, we all expect, the benghazi questions. you know, i can imagine that mitt romney might deal with that by talking a little bit about what he would have done in the same position. that he would have probably gone to the intel brief the next morning. that he might have canceled his trip to las vegas. how do you see all of that being approached, kirsten? >> well, i mean, he has to be careful because i think you've seen how the media has treated this issue, which is they treat that as

some sort of out of bound attack on the president. martha: right. >> even though it's not. but that is definitely how it gets portrayed and it will be portrayed if he does it. so he should find a way, and hopefully the moderator will be the one that will lead on this, and actually ask the questions about it. but i think this is a real danger zone for the administration the way it was for joe biden because they have so many conflicting stories that it is inevitable almost no matter what the president says it will conflict something that was said before honestly i don't know how they can keep it straight all their different stories. so --. martha: we'll be watching. we know you will. we'll look forward to getting your take on afterwards. thank you so much to you both. monica crowley, kirsten powers. big night tomorrow night, everybody. we'll find out. we have live could have trage from hofstra university. we get started at 8:55. megyn kelly bret baier hosting our coverage right here on fox news channel and

everybody, everybody will be watching. bill: sure will. 62, 63 million for debate number two four years ago. martha, the board behind us. these are the 11 battleground states in gray. these are the states we consider too close to call right now. so 18 electoral votes in ohio. how do you win the white house if you do not win in ohio? larry sabato on that in moment. >> the final mission of the spis shuttle endeavour proving to be one of the most harrowing. details when we come back.

bill: welcome back, everyone. 22 days aweigh before the big vote in america. larry sabato professor at university of virginia with your crystal ball. >> good morning. bill: your lucky day today. you get to ride with me on the billboard today. >> i love it. bill: we'll talk about ohio because that's where all the campaigns are day after day and week after week where

the polling is done now too. on the map behind me in 2008, the buckeye state went blue. president obama won it over senator mccain by five points, 52-47%. you know it, professor. ryan is going to hamilton. there are a lot of republican votes. it was a swing county with the president winning by eight, 54-46% . what do you see now for obama or romney? >> one of the biggest pluses the romney-ryan ticket has in ohio, is senator robb portman. he is working on hamilton county too. you're absolutely focus to turn on hamilton. they must get a big republican vote. the biggest problem they have in ohio is the auto industry question. the president obama is given credit for that by democrats and some independents in ohio. we'll see. it is getting closer in ohio. bill: it is close. what if scenario, professor.

indulge me if you will. on our map here if we go full, if you look at the 11 battleground states that are in gray. this is the states where the polling show frankly it is too close to call. in our what if scenario, for governor romney we'll give him the sake for this discussion, 29 electoral votes in florida. remember you need 270 to win the white house. now he is 220 down below. say he wins 15 electoral votes in carl klein and 15 in virginia. for the president, president obama, give him the state of pennsylvania, its 20 electoral votes and state of ohio, 18. you see where he is 239. now the fundamental question, professor is this. how do you win the white house if you do not win ohio, if you're mitt romney? back to governor romney here on the map. you have michigan and wisconsin up here. say you run the table, you take iowa, you take colorado, you're at 263. and maybe you take nevada.

you're still one electoral vote shy. so you have to come across the map to wisconsin, michigan, perhaps, perhaps not. and maybe new hampshire to take this. how do you see the scenario in this current what if, if you do not win ohio? >> the best shot would be, if you're in that situation, your best chance is wisconsin, the second best would be new hampshire. third best would be michigan. but bill, keep in mind, being one vote short is actually better for romney than for obama. if it is 269 to 269, you know it goes to the house of representatives. at the crystal ball our projections are that republicans will control the 26 state delegations that romney would need to win in the house of representatives. so, actually, romney would probably be okay with a 269-269. bill: so here is the scenario then. back on the map. as we are right now, okay, if you were to give president obama 239. give him wisconsin at 10,

michigan at 16. michigan at 16. it changes to 265. governor romney is at 269. look at the four electoral votes out here in new hampshire. give that to the president, there you are, professor. 269-269. that is virtual tie. then the vote goes to the house of representatives. >> and then the good news, is, bill, we continue this drama for two more months. bill: that's okay. i mean that is not the end of the world. >> for us it is okay. bill: what will we talk about then, by the way? >> exactly. bill: this is the scenario we're looking at, the point made in all this, 18 electoral votes in ohio and no republican ever won the white house without winning in the buckeye state, the path to victory is not possible but it is thin, right? >> it's thin. you want to get ohio. ohio is also been correct 27 of the last 29 elections. they picked the president. but, you know, bill, i have to say, every election

breaks at least one rule. i've seen this for so long i don't want to tell you how many election cycles i covered it. every election break as new rule. so the fact that ohio has always gone with the republican that won, doesn't mean it absolutely, postively has to happen every four years. bill: got it. it is a jigsaw puzzle. on the what if scenario watch the 11 battleground states for the next 22 days. thank you, sir. good to see you. >> a lot of fun bill. thank you. bill: you bet. martha: that was very interesting. we have a fox news alert. news out of the supreme court. they will take up an appeal from arizona over their requirement that people prove that they are american citizens before they register to vote. the justices say they will review the lower federal court rulings that blocked that law. those courts said the federal law trumped the arizona requirement. federal law allows voters to fill out mail-in card and swear they are citizens

under penalty of perjury but not required to show proof. more on that as it develops. meanwhile, president obama hunkered down getting ready for tomorrow night's debate. how will he answer the questions about the benghazi attacks. we'll be live with that. the captain of the doomed italian cruise ship is now in court faces charges in the death of more than 30 people. remember this. >> captain, speak up, shield the microphone with your hand, speak louder. clear? at this moment the ship is tilted. martha: will the captain go down with the ship in the end? that is next.

bill: space shuttle endeavour finally home after a journey of oh, 123 million miles. the orbiter arriving yesterday at the california science center in

los angeles. after logging all that time in space the final 12 miles proved to be harrowing. crawling through the streets at 2 miles an hour, dodging trees, buildings and lampposts t took three days to make a 12--mile trip. spectators say it was worth it and cool to see. >> when you get to see this thing right next to you and so huge and it look like it has been through a war or a disaster something, it is really, really neat. >> i have chills. i don't even want to -- we're so excited. like once in a lifetime. bill: that's cool. nice reaction there. engineers cut down 400 trees to make way for the shuttle but had to use creative maneuvering to get around some of the other obstacles in california. martha: los angeles is tough. >> far cry from a white bronco. far different scene. martha: now back to this story we all remember quite well. it could be the week we find out if the captain of that shipwrecked cost at that con con cruise ship, it looked

like a move as this played out right -- costa concordia. he will face charges that that disaster killed 32 people on his watch. the hearing starting today could focus on the ship's black box recorder and what it feels about the events that led up to this. audio recordings talk about the chaos before the ship ran ground. >> this is captain schettino. >> listen, schettino, there are people on board. go on the lifeboat on the bow of the ship on the side. you need to climb up the ladder, go on the ship. get on board and report how many people there are, is that crier? i'm recording this conversation, captain schettino. captain, let me tell you one thing. speak up. this ship at the moment. >> captain speak un. the shield the microphone with your hand, speak louder. at this moment the ship is tilted. martha: remember that? amazing. amy kellogg joins us from our london bureau with the

latest. good morn. >> reporter: hi, martha. captain schettino has been called captain coward in the italian press. the hear been called the man who brought a bad name on italy but important to find out he has not been charged with anything yet. this is pretrial hearing. he could ultimately be charged with multiple counts of manslaughter and abandoning ship. he said in an interview after the accident but hadn't jumped ship but accidentally slipped into a lifeboat. that is why he ended up on dry ground which he conducted rescue operations. so many questions remain. like the disfraction airy role from a former employee from moldova on the bridge at the time who had dinner and according to her, a kiss before the ask happened. the exact series of events on the bridge, moments leading up to that accident, martha. all of this is going to be, shed light upon by the black box which will be played later today. martha, back to you.

martha: a lot of crazy stories in that one. thank you very much, amy. we'll see where that goes. bill: we have some bad news for those on social security. why the annual increase could be the smallest we've seen since the 1970s. 22 days ago and the race for the white house could not be tighter. brit hume coming up and his take on the critical last stretch of this campaign gecko (clearing throat)

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martha: fox news alert. 22 days to go, folks. and the obama campaign is facing critical questions now about the handling of the terror attack in benghazi. lots of that coming up as we start a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. >> i'm bill hemmer. vice president joe biden saying last week we were not told about more security at the white house, at the embassy where chris stevens and three others were murdered. the mother of shaun smith says that she has got even very few answers. >> they say we will check it out and let you know, and that's what hillary said, and panetta,

and joe biden, and susan rice. they all said the same thing, and after that i heard nothing until i finally talked to the people in the media, absolutely nothing. martha: boy. all right. let's go to our chief white house correspondent ed henry live in williamsburg, virginia, where the president is doing debate prep. the white house is taking serious heat on this still. what is their response now? >> they are, martha, you're right it goes back to the thursday vice presidental debate in kentucky where vice president biden weighed in and basically suggested he said, we didn't know about these more security requests in benghazi and tripoli that had been put in by state department officials and denied. that raised a lot of eyebrows. it was later collar need by the white house, that with we he meant he and the president had not been briefed about all of that. it certainly left the door open to all other kinds of officials being briefed. questions though about whether the president was ever briefed

on the security problems. you'll remember the consulate was targeted several times in benghazi long before this terror attack. obviously a big source of controversy on the sunday talk shows. yesterday you have republicans like lindsey graham suggesting maybe there was a cover up while the president's top advisers like david axelrod said everything should calm down. >> this is the same administration that leaks every detail of classified operations that are successful. within a week you had three stories about cyber attacks against the iranian nuclear program, about disrupting the underwear bomber place. details of osama bin laden, all over the press showing how strong this administration was, they are very political when it comes to foreign policy. when something goes bad they deny, deceive and delay. >> we want to get to the bottom of it and the first order of business is to bring to justice those who committed this heinous act and secondly find out what went wrong and what adjustments need to be made to further

secure our diplomats around the world. >> and here is how it ties into tomorrow night's debate at hofstra university. the topics will be split between domestic and foreign policy. libya can come up, that is something that could not have happened in denver when it was all that the economy and domestic policy. martha: we are told the president has been in three days of debate prep where you are. they face off tomorrow night. how is it looking? what is the mood in the obama team heading into this? >> when you talk to his senior advisers they know he's under a lot of pressure after the performance the first time that even his own team realizes wasn't good enough. he was delivering pizza yesterday to some of his campaign workers here in virginia, it's a battleground state, obviously trying to project an image of being calm and cool. let's face it is he under pressure specifically on this issue of libya. it will likely come up tomorrow night since foreign policy is on the table. interesting that "time magazine"

reporting that both the romney and obama campaign have written to the debate commission about some comments the moderator made about asking follow-up questions saying that the rules don't allow to press them on this. that could show the romney camp doesn't want to be pressed on tax cuts, and the president doesn't want to be pressed on libya. martha: maybe that is a sign that they are both concerned about something they'd rather not be asked about. we'll see how it goes when it all comes out. coming up in just ten minutes from now we'll be joined by fox news senior political analyst brit hume, ask him where he this is the next 22 days will take us from what he sees happening on the ground right now. tune into our special coverage to the second to the last presidential debate. tomorrow night at 8:55 eastern time. we will be repraoefg i previewing it on "america's

newsroom" and all the way through. bill: there will be a lot of people watching on tuesday night. there is a lot on the line. paul ryan hitting the campaign trail in his home state today. any moment he will speak with voters at a town hall meeting west of milwaukee. if anything news worthy comes out of the event we'll bring that to you. later he'll be in cincinnati, ohio, before attending a fund-raiser later tonight in new york city. martha: overseas now, stunning video coming out of syria, rebels saying that it shows a government fighter jet falling from the sky after it was shot by rebel forces. a human rights group saying that the bashar al-assad regime is starting to drop russian-made cluster bombs on civilian populations. this situation is getting a lot worse. the u.n. estimating 20,000 people have been killed. who knows if those numbers could be north of that in all of these uprisings. it's been going on for a longtime now.

bill: five men, including khalid sheikh mohammad facing a court in gitmo. kelly wright is on the store row in washington when the pretrial hearings get underway. what is the legal framework that will be set for this. >> there is a lot of work to be done and some of the legal graham work will come from the fact that 21 motions need to be heard that range from classified information to less serious matters such as what the 9/11 suspects can wear in court, and whether they even have to show up in court. also in this election season it should be noted that four years ago you'll recall then candidate barack obama promised to close the guantanamo camps. bill: we understand there are contentious matters to be discussed.

what are those. >> the most contentious issues right now is on the handling of the classified information i talked about and efforts to keep out materials or details about the operation of cia secret pr*eugss. prisons. they want to keep out everything in the men's years in the secret prisons where they were subjected to the enhanced interrogation program. khalid sheikh mohammad's attorney claims his client was tortured. >> he was subjected to heinous abuse, to include 183 sessions of the water board. what that means is that he was brought to the brink of death 183 times by our government. that is a mock execution. >> bill, also, some of the defense attorneys are expected to raise complaints about working conditions. they claim their working environment is filled with toxic mold, rat and mice feces, even small dead animals can be found. prosecutors say the buildings

are safe. >> i think we all know that justice is not determined by the plushness of the surroundings. it's about the quality of the decision making and justice. >> during the arraignment in may the defense attorney wore a full covering, and bill, essentially when she was asked if she would do that today she says she will wear the controversial covering today during pretrial hearings. bill: kelly wright thank you. we'll see how that goes today via closed circuit tv in washington. martha: the folks on social security receiving the lowest increase in benefits that they have received in more than 35 years. under the government's cost of living adjustment measure, which is also called cola this year's increase will be between 1 and 2% per month. that is the lowest since automatic adjustments kicked in back in 1975. adam shapiro from the fox business network joins us. adam, good morning.

how does this break down? >> well, for the average recipient right now they are getting $1,237 a month. it's really not that big an increase it will be between 12 and $24. we can show you right now what they can expect. as you said a lot of retirees, 56 million people who received social security will find out tomorrow from the bureau of labor statistics how large that increase might be. nobody is expecting 2%, it's expected to be less than that. martha: how do they determine these cola payments? obviously it's pinned to the economy and how much more things cost, right? >> right. this has been the law since the 1970s. what the bureau of labor statistics does is they look at inflation for the months of july, august, september. tomorrow we'll get the september number and that's how they figure it out. they look at july, august, september each year. there was no increase for social security recipients for three years. they got a 6.3 increase this

year because the two years previous there was no increase whatsoever. that is how it is adjusted. by the way there is a contraction sometimes but the amount you get in social security never goes down, even if inflation should go negative. martha: very interesting, adam thank you so much. bill: there are growing concerns that the white house is throwing the secretary of state under the bus over the deaths of four americans in libya. at least one lawmaker thinks the administration is either lying about what they new or totally incompetent. is that a fair point or is that overboard? plus -- >> why was it with gasoline at about twice the price when he came in that he cut in half the number of permits for drilling on public lands? martha: a harsh reality for one of the president's campaign promises from 2008 as gas prices skyrocket to record highs now. why the pain at the pump has become a major issue in campaign 2012. bill: 22 days, martha. brit hume in a moment on where the race stands at this point

today, and what both sides are doing with a little over three weeks to go. >> if they want to keep slow dancing and talk about it and not do it i'm not your man. jack, you're a little boring.

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to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. bill: cdc, centers for disease control and prevention say the meningitis outbreak has grown to 200 case necessary 14 different states. the new cases confirmed in new hampshire, florida, indiana and more in tennessee. so far 15 deaths linked to possibly tainted vials of a steroid medication. this after an outbreak that health officials are calling unprecedented. as many as 14,000 people could be at risk. martha: just 22 days to go until the presidential election and we are owe looking at a dead heat.

the "real clear politics" shows governor romney ahead by two tenths of a percentage point. brit hume joins me now. 22 days to go. what is your read on how it will look over the next three weeks? >> i don't think we have a clear sense, martha. my experience has been that debates usually don't make much difference in these campaigns, but the first debate clearly did make a difference. it seemed to be the event that romney had been trying to develop for a longtime, in which he finally got people to take a serious look at him, people who might be plea paired to make a change, take a serious look at him and find that they liked what they saw, or at least enough of them did to give him a boost. the president obviously has the opportunity this week to try to change that perception back. i think it will be hard to do. first debates tend to leave a lasting impression. everything has been different this year. the polls are peculiar, the

circumstances are odd. the president has defied gravity to remain as high in the polls as as he has as far as what the country faces, the things he promised to do and so on. i feel like i'm a brand-new rookie reporter watching events play out for the first time. martha: which makes it really exciting. larry sabato was saying who knows if ohio will decide this case. every presidential election we see rules broken. that's what makes this so unique. listen to some of president obama's campaign people out there, they say it depends on which mitt romney shows up. he's a salesman, he's used to trying to convince people and appeal to them. the president said that himself. he said, woe, did you see the guy that showed up last night when he was reeling to recover in the next day. i imagine we're going to see some of that, try to get him back to the out of touch ceo? >> on the one hand you can't call a guy a salesman who knows how to reach out to people and

touch them, and on the other hand say that he's completeee aloof out of touch ceo who cares only about his own money. that doesn't make any sense. it does seem that the obama campaign has tried repeatedly different themes with which to attack mitt romney and he seemed to kind of blow past all of them in the first debate and make a real impression. my guess is that they'll keep trying all kinds of things. there is another current here that so far doesn't seem to have had much effect on the campaign and could. that is this whole situation with regard to benghazi. not only did we have clearly a major security and intelligence fail in your that country that led to this hideous event and the murder of the first american ambassador to be so killed in decades, we also this distinct signs of a cover up. we have an absolutely false story that the administration put out about this and all kinds

of reason to think know that they new at the time what they did it. this is really something that can hurt. the history of these things, martha is that bad policy decisions and unfortunate results are a problem, but they are not a scandal. cover ups are a scandal, and scandals are politically very dangerous. if this comes to be scene in the public's eye the next few weeks as a legitimate damage i'm sure it could do some damage. i'm not sure it will be. martha: in terms of the moderator tomorrow night, if you were moderating this and you're sitting there, and you feel that they need to be pressed on this benghazi issue a little bit harder than perhaps the question came in from the audience, what do you do? >> well, my sense about it is that the debate commission wants moderators to not inject termses too much into these debates. this will be about the questioners. it's not at all impossible that one of the people might ask a sharp question about this and bring this out. in debate answers the president

will problem below find some way to make a probable response. but that is not really the ingredient that i think would be so explosive here. what i think would be explosive on part of a blunder on his part and what he says is reporting that turns up more of this. more detail about who said what to whom. we know that when susan rice, for example, went on those sunday shows there was all kinds of reason to believe that the state department did not agree with the story that she was going to put out that day, although she is a part of the state department. we also know that sunday's show appearances are controlled by, approved by, and directed by the white house. so it would be good to know, who in the white house briefed her, who told her what message to put out, or who agreed with her about what message to put out. that's how it works. all of these things are questions that i guess have been asked a few places but have yet to be answered. martha: ever since then we've really only heard from campaign spokes people on this. we've heard nothing from the white house itself. >> the white house has gone dark on it. jay carney has said things even

more questionable than what susan rice has said. there is ground to be explored there for some good reporting. martha: indeed, brit thank you as always. bill: strong comments. she disappeared only steps away from her home. police confirm the body they found is that of 10-year-old jessica ridgeway. now the hunt for her killer. >> it's unthinkable it happened right here, this close. >> i don't know why would do such a terrible thing to someone. bill: this morning the update on the death of jessica ridgeway. martha: a cross dedicated to those who died serving our country. why some are demanding it be torn down 90 years after it was out there. >> the distinguished air cross, is that a religious medal? they have the crosshairs in its sight, because the word crosshairs is that a religious reference as well?

martha: 24 past the hour now. here are some of the stories we are watching this morning in "america's newsroom." top box storm rav file could reach hurricane status near bermuda today. experts say the storm already packing -p 0-mil 70-mile an hour winds and could make land full as early as tuesday. two americans have won the nobel prize for economics. they won for the work of theory and the application of design. the award is worth about 1.2 million american dollars they got for that. good for them. congratulations. they are certainly not phasing away, legendary rockers the rolling stones announcing four shows to celebrate 50 years together. the shows will be two in london, two in new york. mit jagger hinting that a longer

tour could soon be announced. they are like the time exwatches these guys. bill: more power to to them. if we could do that at 70. martha: we'll do a 50-year tour, bill, you and i. two shows in new york and cincinnati. bill: we'll hit all the big spots. it's a small state with a big impact on the presidential race. we are talking about new hampshire. four electoral votes but one of just a handful of states with thability to really shake things up. molly line is in boston, what did you find up there ph. >> you're absolutely right, new hampshire and iowa for that matter play a major role in presidential politicsment there is still a big focus on new hampshire and the four electoral votes which could have a major impact in the election. we had a chance to speak with andy smith up there, a professor. the poll released last tuesday shows that president obama's

lead has been slipping now just six percentage points ahead of romney who was trailing by 15 points the previous week. this is a race the voters are following. >> i am voting for barack obama. i'm voting for him because overall he best represents my feels in terms of the economy, foreign relations and ed waeugs. >> i' indication. >> i'm voting for romney. we need a change. he's a successful businessman e. knows how to make businesses grow, why can't he make the economy grow? martha: it was easy to find people and both sides of the political aisle up there as well as a lot of undecided voters. bill: from new hampshire you were also out in iowa, six electoral votes out there. what did you find there, molly? >> reporter: we had a chance to speak with farmers. we made it to a big kwulting fair. quilting fair. the same situation there. a lot of undecided voters and folks on both sides. >> i think mitt romney has a

good business sense, i think he knows what he's doing and i think he can do it. >> i believe obama is much more concerned about the middle and lower classes. >> reporter: this year it comes back to those folks that started the whole process. they could have a big say in how it all ends. bill: they certainly can in a race this close. a thank you, molly lines in boston. martha: high gas prices are becoming a big issue on the campaign trail now. governor romney taking president obama to task on this. hear what candidate promised back in 2008, but has failed to deliver on. bill: another hot campaign issue is the president's handling of the terror attack in benghazi. you just heard brit hume say it allegations of a cover up, will that stick in we'll debate that fair & balanced in a minute. >> when vice president biden said in the debate wednesday night that we weren't told that they wanted more security there in libya, he directly contradicted the sworn testimony of the regional security director for the state

department with responsibility for libya.

. martha: we have two debates down. the first presidential and vice presidental, two more to go. and with 22 days left in this election the candidates are hunkered down and preparing for the first of their two show downs. it sounds like the consensus is that the president is going to

come out swinging this time, doug. >> i think that is the consensus. to use the president's generally regarded lack luster performance in the first debate, coupled with the vice president's, some say overly aggressiveness in the vp debate the president needs to make a stronger case for a second term. the momentum is now with romney and ryan. the only way to block that momentum barring an obtain surprise may be for the president to decisively win tuesday's debate. >> i think he's going to be aggressive in making the case for his view of whether we should go as a country, and a country that is built around a growing, thriving middle class not this top down theory that governor romney has. >> there is one potentially very big obstacle to achieving that, however, this next debate is a town hall style debate with undecided voters picked by the gallop polls asking the questions with the moderator asking the follow-up.

they tend to lean towards social issues, because citizen questioners often relate their personal antidotes or circumstances. to be aggressive in such a form can be off putting to some voters. candidates have to walk that fine line between being aggressive and being compassionate. martha: very true, doug. the citizen questioners are allowed to pose domestic questions or foreign policy questions, it's a mix. >> reporter: it's a mix and the foreign policy front is potentially a real mind field for the administration, a chance for governor romney to be aggressive especially regarding the terror attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. keep in mind during the vice presidental debate, vice president biden directly contradicted the sworn testimony of the guy who is responsibility for security in libya. look for romney to zero in on that inconsistency. should the moderator candy crowley allow such a question. martha: that is a hot spot for tomorrow. remember, everybody, to tune into our special coverage of the

second to last presidential debate tomorrow. it starts at 8:55 eastern time. bill and i will be previewing it in the morning and post analysis the day after. bill: a big week. martha: yeah. bill: we get another one the week after. martha: we sure do. bill: 22 days now high gas prices shaping up to be a pivotal campaign issue. today's average for a gallon is $3.79. that is more the double the price. when president obama was sworn into office governor romney hitting president obama over the pain at the pump this weekend. >> why was it with gasoline at about twice the price as when he came in that he cut in half the number of permits for drilling on public lands? why he said no to the keystone pipeline. i asked more questions just like, why was it with a trillion dollar deficit he found it in his heart to put $90 billion into green energy companies, that in many cases were contributors to his campaign. bill: tough words over the

weekend but it was a candidate obama who made solving high gas prices a major priority. listen to mr. obama in 2008 on that. >> for the well off in this country high gas prices are mostly an annoyance, but to most americans they are a huge problem, bordering on a crisis. as the president i will work to solve this energy crisis once and for fall. bill: steven moore, senior economic for the "wall street journal." politics and the economy are mixed into this. answer the question, why the spike at the moment. >> there are a couple of fact erts. obviously there is unrest in the middle east, bill and whenever that happens you see a spike up in energy prices. but there is also domestic policies that are affecting these high gas prices and i point to two, bill, one is the expansive monetary policy by the federal reserve. when they announced qe1 and qe2 and qe3 and qe inch finance a tee all that pouring of money into the economy leads to higher

prices. one of the reasons these high gas gas prices are a potential program for barack obama is they are an indicator for higher prices across the board. the last woeupbt i would make, bill is the point that mitt romney made in that clip you played. this has been a president that's been pretty hostile to fossil fuels. there hasn't been a lot of drilling on federal lands. there's been a lot of moratoriums in fact. we have an editorial in our paper today, about 11 million acres in alaska that was taken off line from drilling. this is a problem i think for barack obama, and those high gas prices are problems for the mid class. bill: you're saying the dollar is cheaper so the money is cheaper to get. >> that's right. bill: the energy policy has not been suitable, has not length itself toward finding more, let's say, oil reserves. >> that's right. >> you look in fracking in places like eastern ohio, that industry is booming. >> it is. bill: which tells you why governor romney over the weekend was talking about gas price

necessary ohio. waoes trying to find an issue there. >> look, you're right with the natural gas boom in this country, and the hydraulic fracturing. we have a lot more oil on gas production but not nearly enough. all of that production, almost all of that is on private lands. one of the points the oil and gas executives say that i talk to they say most of the oil in this country is on public lands and that's what's been taken off limits for drilling. you know, if those high gas prices persist, i think it is a problem come november 6th because i'm old enough to remember 1980 when the high gas prices were a big problem for jimmy carter, it was a sign to the voters that there was something wrong with the economy fundamentally. bill: $4.61 is the average price per gallon in california. it trickles across the country from west to east. this is what you told our producers here, explain this. you said the president told us his policies back in 2008, four years ago would make energy more

expensive and he was right. what do you mean? >> well the one clip that you didn't show, bill, you showed the clip of him saying that high gas prices hurt the middle class but previously in some of the debates when he was debating hillary clinton in the democratic primary he made a statement that he said, my energy policies will necessarily mean higher energy prices, and in fact that's been the case. his energy policies have led to higher energy prices, that is one of the few promises on the economy barack obama has made. by the way he had also proposed, he didn't get it through congress, he proposed a big energy tax called the cap and trade policy. if that had gone through energy prices would even be higher than they are today. bill: i think your point about 1908 is very interesting. it goes to how you feel about how you're doing and how much money is pouring out of your pocket. i would aurg don't have to go to california to find high gas prices. this debate is going to be in long island. you drive out of new york city and you're over 4 bucks already.

>> i want to go to a place where you pay less than $4 a gallon. where i live in northern virginia we are paying 4.40. i think yesterday i made 4.39 a gallon to fill up. people are searching around for a place where you can pay less than $4 a gallon. maybe some of those western states that have oil like wyoming but not a lot of metropolitan areas where you're paying a lot more. bill: the energy plan is one of the five principles that governor romney said he would do if elected president. we'll see how it plays tomorrow night. i think it will be a big issue in the debate. bill: thank you. steven moore from the "wall street journal." martha: new claims that the white house is either incompetent or potentially engaged in some kind of cover up over what it knew the days before the deaths of four americans in benghazi, libya. up next we'll talk about whether secretary of state hillary clinton and the entire state department are essentially being thrown under the bus on this by the administration. bill: a decades' old cross,

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bill: a fireworks display turned into a horror show in eastern china about a hundred people -- wow, about a hundred people suffering burns and injuries after some of the fireworks landed in the middle of that crowd. at least two people still recovering in the hospital from burns on their face. police still trying to figure out what went wrong. martha: back to this big story right now, the growing debate and new questions that are arising about what the house did or did not know surrounding the deaths of four americans in libya. one lawmaker says that what we have heard tells us plenty, in his opinion, about the administration's response.

here is senator lindsey graham on cbs' "face the nation." >> either they are miss leeing the american people oeurpb credibly incompetent. there was no way with anybody looking at all that you could believe five days after the attack it was based on a riot that never occurred. there were no riot at all. so to say that you're either very incompetent or misleading. >> kt mcfarland a national security analyst. rich lowry is fox news contributor and ed today tore of the national review. kt let me start with you on this. i know you have worked in the white house during a number of these types of situations. >> right. >> and you have said that you find this completely implausible, that the president, the vice president, and members of the administration could possibly have been unaware of the circumstances on the ground during this attack. >> yeah, if the vice president and the president were unaware of the situation on the ground when the attack occurred, if they were unaware of the request for additional security, guess what, they were probably the only two people in the white

house unaware of that. the state department officials have testified under oath that they knew that this was not a demonstration that got out of hand, so why did the white house spin a totally different story? they made a fairy tale up out of whole cloth, now they are caught and they are busy blaming everybody in sight. blaming the state department, the intelligence community when my guess is the blame is right in the white house. martha: let's listen to david axelrod as well from this weekend then we'll go to rich. >> anyone would have said the same thing she said, that was the intelligence we were receiving. it's not a matter of blaming, that is just the facts, sometimes intelligence has to catch up with reality on the ground. this was one of those cases. martha: is this one of those case stphes. >> i'd really like to see susan rice under oath about this. martha. the key question for me, who briefed her? you have state department officials now saying we never thought it was a spontaneous protest, we had people monitoring it in realtime and

there was never any protest, yet you have our ambassador to the u.n. going out there and saying something that apparently her own department didn't believe but conveniently reflected the white house's spin on this. so who briefed her prior to the sunday shows? did she go on without talking to david plouff or david axelrod? i think that is a key question in this whole thing. martha: it's so surprising when you think about the people we have not heard of in this whole thing. we all understand that you have to have an investigation on going. let's be serious here for a moment, in terms of john brennan, for example, just one example, the chief of counterterrorism, adviser to the president, where has he been in this kt, and who else would you expect in normal circumstances that you'd be hearing from instead of three spokes people for the campaign? >> this is in fact -- now you realize why it's so fishy. why did the u.n. ambassador go out and talk about it on all the sunday talk shows? she was put out there by the white house.

why? well it shouldn't have been her. the u.n. ambassador has no responsibility for security of embassies overseas. that's the state department. no responsibility for intelligence that is the cia. no responsibility for marine guards, that's the defense department. i checked on the schedules of all of those officials who should have been the ones to go before the talk shows, guess what, they were all available, and in washington, they all could have testified. why didn't they do it? i think because they weren't willing to say something that they knew was a complete fairy tale. >> let's go to the political side of this for a minute, rich, because the white house has accused the romney administration of popo lit sizing all of this. david axelrod and chris wallace gotten to it saying that chris shouldn't be asking questions about this we should wait for the investigation to play out. >> i think the administration is poe lit sizing it. what is not poe lit sizing when

they go out and tell as you fairy tale? they are doing it for explicit reasons. it would be so easily to admit this wasn't about a video, it was about a terror assault in benghazi libya an act of tere roar, when they portrayed the country safe from terror ever more because our wonderful commander-in-chief had killed osama bin laden. it's the white house that has clearly been poe lit sizing it. if anything mitt romney has been too gentle with them. martha: what does it say about the administration's policy overall? when you put all the pieces together, you have the cairo situation where the embassy is overrun, the embassy flag is taken down and a jihaddist flag is put up in its place and the government stands by and allows that to happen in cairo. and then you switch over to this situation in benghazi, and it just brings into question the larger foreign policy of the administration which it seems no one wants to talk about.

>> you've absolutely hit on the core of the problem. five days before the attack on september 11th the president was at the democratic convention basically saying osama bin laden is dead, al-qaida is on the ropes, al-qaida al-qaida is finished. hard to think they are finished if they were able to pull off an attack like that in benghazi. just the opposite. people i've talked to in the intelligence community all feel al-qaida is on the upswing and has a real presence in eastern libya. in the end, martha it's all going to come out, because the intelligence and the state department communities, the career professionals are not going to take this. they are going to get out from under that bus and come out and say -- martha: we've got to go. >> there will be more leaks and more backlash. martha: we'll hear about it tomorrow night. there are several news organizations including this one that are very much on this story as brit hume pointed out early will stay that way. thank you so much to both of you. kt, rich, see you later. bill: jon scott "happening now," how you doing.

jon: i am doing well, good morning to you, bill, the race for the white house is tight and getting tighter. the new washington post polling to share with you, plus the growing mess about the attack on our diplomats in libya, martha was just talking about it, what the administration knew and when the debate on that is growing. the next generation of disease, bugs that jump from animals to humans, some scary stuff. also tomorrow's debate moderator candy crowley already coming under fire from both sides. what has them upset? our news watch panel weighs in. it's all "happening now." bill: a community shaken to its core. a young girl kidnapped blocks from her home and found murdered. now a killer in that town is on the run. >> if you see something that is suspicious our recommendation is to just leave it and call us. this p*erpb is still ou person is still out there and you never know what will be the piece for us to find him. ♪

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martha: this is brand-new video. we now have the helmet cam video of felix baumgartner's plunge to the earth at 800 and something miles an hour. it looks like the camera is attached to his chest. that is the earth spinning and spinning around as his head aims right for it at a tremendously fast rate. this wasn't when he was flipping. this is after he righted that flip i would imagine. but, boy. bill: amazing, right? martha: unbelieving. for all the naysayers, he did it an walked away from it. imagine that, to get your bearings after that. bill: you can see the slope of the earth in the background too. a search for a killer in a small town following the death of a ten-year-old girl. her body was discovered in a park near her home only days after she disappeared. she was en route to school at that time and fox denver is at

the site where jessica was reportedly abducted. do the police have any suspects there? >> at this point, bill, we can tell you they are looking at one person of interest. however, there is not much hope as far as this particular person who was a registered sex offender, this person checked out about 20 miles from here in the downtown denver area. this happened in westminster, a suburb. i'll show you right here, the park where jessica was to have met her two friends before they were going to walk to school on that friday that she disappeared. you see a beautiful memorial here, the color purple, jessica's favorite color is what marks in memorial. we'll swing the camera over here and show you just about a hundred yards around that bend is jessica's home. so whoever took her had to have taken her right in the area that you're looking at right there. there is some speculation about whether or not it was someone kne she knew or whether or not it was a stranger. bill: what is the latest on the search right now?

what can we report on that? >> well, fbi, local and state authorities are continuing their search. they've searched from the air, on the ground. they are doing a grid search where they walk-through the neighborhoods, they are leaving no stone unturned and they are interviewing and reinterviewing neighbors in the area as well, but still very little to go on. a lot of leads, though, coming into that tip line, some 1600 in fact, bill. bill: our best to the community and certainly that family. thank you. martha: back to this story of felix baumgartner. what a fascination with this today. they don't call him fearless for nothing. his drop from, oh, about 24 miles, look at the curvature of the earth in the distance. start to finish millions of americans watched this live and hear what was going through his mind while it was happening

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